Birdwatching is a pastime of increasing popularity in the United States and abroad. While an excursion into a wilderness area is one way to view birds, many people derive satisfaction by attracting birds to their own yards through various seed feeding devices. However, the seed provided by these devices is also highly-attractive to squirrels and other rodents. A perennial problem plaguing all such devices, therefore, is how to provide feed to attract birds, while simultaneously preventing squirrels and other animals from also partaking of that feed and scaring away the birds for which the feed is intended.
Traditional upright feeders, often in a cylindrical or similar configuration, with a vertical axis of symmetry for the circular surface cross sections of the feeder, and with the seed provided through a wire-like mesh on the cylindrical surface, have the added disadvantage that one cannot view all of the birds which are feeding at the feeder. One can only view those birds on the same side of the cylinder as the viewer, which amounts to only about half of all the feeding birds. In addition, the squirrel-deterring capabilities of these feeders are minimal at best.
Traditional flatbed feeders are preferable from the standpoint of being able to view all of the birds presently at the feeder and ease of use in loading feed into the feeder. But the ability of such feeders to prevent squirrels from feeding on the same feed is minimal or non-existent, and they provide a ready platform upon which a squirrel can perch in order to feed.
Many efforts to prevent squirrels from partaking of bird feed have involved suspending a feeder from a tree. While this may prevent.a squirrel from jumping onto the feeder directly off of the ground, it does not prevent the far-more common approach wherein the squirrel will simply climb up the tree and jump down onto the feeder. It also requires the viewer to hang the feeder fairly high in the tree, and therefore, does not allow for eye-level viewing, which is much more preferable. It also does not allow the feeder to be placed in a location where a tree is not available, e.g., on a patio or balcony, and so greatly limits the flexibility of a feeder in terms of viable locations for placement. It would be desirable to be able to place a feeder in any setting whatsoever, while making the feeder inaccessible to squirrels.
Further, it may also be desired to limit the types of birds that feed at a feeder. In part, this can be achieved by choice of seeds. However, it would also be desirable to control access to the feeder such that larger birds, such as grackle, cowbird, and turtle dove, are unable to gain access to the feeder, while smaller birds, such as goldfinch, nuthatch, and chickadee, etc., can continue to gain such access.
Further, certain birds, such as woodpeckers, prefer suet (animal fat) for feed, and require a different feeder configuration to enable them to access this suet. It would be desirable for a feeder to have a way of providing feed for these birds as well, while continuing to prevent access by squirrels.
Finally, in the event one does not mind observing squirrels as well as birds, but does not want the squirrels partaking of the feed intended for birds, it would be helpful to provide a separate feeding area for squirrels that will maintain them separately from the birds and lessen their desire to encroach upon the bird feeding area.